Everything You Need to Know About Adding Testimonials to Your Website

Testimonials are recommendations that satisfied buyers leave about services, products, or companies. The most successful companies put testimonials on their websites to show the world that people love what they have to offer. If you are about to create a website, you need to add testimonials to get the results you want.

If you have yet to get a testimonial, you might not be sure why this is so important. Let’s go over the benefits of adding testimonials to your website. You’ll also learn some tips to help you optimize the benefits.

Benefits of Testimonials

You have likely read testimonials when you’ve visited different websites, but do you know the benefits? Once you go over the benefits, you will understand why the best website design strategy includes testimonials.

Builds Trust

Testimonials build trust with your customer base. When people see that your customers love you, they are more likely to trust you to provide them with a high-quality product or service.

Establishes Credibility

You want to establish credibility in the business world. That’s much easier to do when you have testimonials. People will see that you have provided a valuable product or service to others. You’re a real business, so you are credible.

Creates Social Proof

Testimonials serve as social proof. People are influenced by other consumers. When they see social proof, they are more likely to make a purchase. If you don’t have social proof, you’ll have a hard time closing sales.

What Makes Up a Good Testimonial?

While people have full autonomy when leaving a business review, it’s still normal to want to look at testimonial examples. After looking at testimonial examples, you’ll know which reviews to include on your website.

If you were to look at examples, you’d notice that the best testimonials share certain qualities. Let’s take a closer look at what the best testimonials have in common.

Credible Source

People will consider credibility when looking at the testimonials on your website. Is each testimonial from a real customer? You can ensure your sources look credible by including their full names, photos, job titles, and more. The more information you get, the more credible the testimonial will appear.

Natural Language

Some businesses use a testimonial template for their customers, while others edit the testimonial, so it sounds more professional. That might sound like a good idea, but it couldn’t be further from the case. When you look at testimonial examples, you’ll notice the best ones use natural language that was obviously written by the customer.

Adds Something to the Page

This is where so many people go wrong when they create a website. They use testimonials that don’t add anything to the page. Some of the testimonials might regurgitate information already on the page, while other testimonials only say things like “Love it,” or “Great product.” Testimonials need to add something of value to the page.

Provides Details

Testimonials are the most effective when they are heavy on details. Instead of just saying that a product or service is “good” or “helpful,” the testimonial should explain why. At the same time, it should be tightly focused and to the point.

How to Get Testimonials

Most people won’t leave a testimonial without being prompted to do so. In fact, only 28 percent of people who have a positive experience leave a review without prompting. If prompted, though, 50 percent of consumers will leave a review. That’s why asking is so important.  How you do this is critical to the success of your marketing program.

First, follow up with the people who have purchased a product or service recently. When the purchase is recent, they still remember the experience. It’s fresh, so they are more likely to deliver compelling testimonials that will help you sell more products.

An email campaign is an effective way to follow up with your customer base. Don’t just send a single email and wash your hands of it, though. Send a follow-up email to those who don’t respond. Also, stay in touch with the people who do respond with testimonials. The more time they use your product or service, the more they’ll have to say about it, so their testimonials can actually get better.

Email is too impersonal for your best customers. When someone has been an amazing customer, reach out to that person individually. Your customer will appreciate that you took the time to reach out, and you’ll be pleased with the testimonials you get.

Getting the Best Testimonials

You know who to ask, but what should you ask? How can you get people to provide you with a testimonial that your customer base will love? The trick is to guide your customers by asking for specific information. For instance, you can ask a customer to write a testimonial that explains how much money he or she saved by using the product. You can also ask for the testimonial to include information about the biggest benefit, and so on. Think about what makes your product or service special and then ask people to write about it.

Where Should You Place Testimonials on Your Website?

Website builders make it easy to add testimonials to your website. Squarespace has a variety of plugins to let you showcase your testimonials, while Wix lets you add testimonial lists or strips. These are just two examples.

After you choose a website builder, you have to decide where to place the testimonials. If you have a lot of testimonials, you should create a dedicated testimonials page. Then, people can click on the testimonials page to find out what your customers have to say.

That’s not all, though. You should also add testimonials to the service or products page and the home page. Also, put testimonials near calls to action to give people an extra push to take action.

Finally, if you have a long business review, you can include it in a blog post. That will help you reach more people.

Start Gathering Testimonials for Your Website

As you can see, testimonials are a critical component of your website. Gather testimonials and then add them to your site. When people see your testimonials, they’ll be more likely to spend their money on your site. Then, you’ll see why this is one of the best website design strategies out there.